THE CROOKED MAGICIAN
CHAP. TWO
Just at dawn next morning Unc Nunkie laid his hand tenderly on Ojo'shead and awakened him.
"Come," he said.
Ojo dressed. He wore blue silk stockings, blue knee-pants with goldbuckles, a blue ruffled waist and a jacket of bright blue braided withgold. His shoes were of blue leather and turned up at the toes, whichwere pointed. His hat had a peaked crown and a flat brim, and around thebrim was a row of tiny golden bells that tinkled when he moved. This wasthe native costume of those who inhabited the Munchkin Country of theLand of Oz, so Unc Nunkie's dress was much like that of his nephew.Instead of shoes, the old man wore boots with turnover tops and hisblue coat had wide cuffs of gold braid.
The boy noticed that his uncle had not eaten the bread, and supposedthe old man had not been hungry. Ojo was hungry, though; so he dividedthe piece of bread upon the table and ate his half for breakfast,washing it down with fresh, cool water from the brook. Unc put the otherpiece of bread in his jacket pocket, after which he again said, as hewalked out through the doorway: "Come."
Ojo was well pleased. He was dreadfully tired of living all alone in thewoods and wanted to travel and see people. For a long time he had wishedto explore the beautiful Land of Oz in which they lived. When they wereoutside, Unc simply latched the door and started up the path. No onewould disturb their little house, even if anyone came so far into thethick forest while they were gone.
At the foot of the mountain that separated the Country of the Munchkinsfrom the Country of the Gillikins, the path divided. One way led to theleft and the other to the right--straight up the mountain. Unc Nunkietook this right-hand path and Ojo followed without asking why. He knewit would take them to the house of the Crooked Magician, whom he hadnever seen but who was their nearest neighbor.
All the morning they trudged up the mountain path and at noon Unc andOjo sat on a fallen tree-trunk and ate the last of the bread which theold Munchkin had placed in his pocket. Then they started on again andtwo hours later came in sight of the house of Dr. Pipt.
It was a big house, round, as were all the Munchkin houses, and paintedblue, which is the distinctive color of the Munchkin Country of Oz.There was a pretty garden around the house, where blue trees and blueflowers grew in abundance and in one place were beds of blue cabbages,blue carrots and blue lettuce, all of which were delicious to eat. InDr. Pipt's garden grew bun-trees, cake-trees, cream-puff bushes, bluebuttercups which yielded excellent blue butter and a row ofchocolate-caramel plants. Paths of blue gravel divided the vegetable andflower beds and a wider path led up to the front door. The place was ina clearing on the mountain, but a little way off was the grim forest,which completely surrounded it.
Unc knocked at the door of the house and a chubby, pleasant-faced woman,dressed all in blue, opened it and greeted the visitors with a smile.
"Ah," said Ojo; "you must be Dame Margolotte, the good wife of Dr.Pipt."
"I am, my dear, and all strangers are welcome to my home."
"May we see the famous Magician, Madam?"
"He is very busy just now," she said, shaking her head doubtfully. "Butcome in and let me give you something to eat, for you must have traveledfar in order to get to our lonely place."
"We have," replied Ojo, as he and Unc entered the house. "We have comefrom a far lonelier place than this."
"A lonelier place! And in the Munchkin Country?" she exclaimed. "Then itmust be somewhere in the Blue Forest."
"It is, good Dame Margolotte."
"Dear me!" she said, looking at the man, "you must be Unc Nunkie, knownas the Silent One." Then she looked at the boy. "And you must be Ojo theUnlucky," she added.
"Yes," said Unc.
"I never knew I was called the Unlucky," said Ojo, soberly; "but it isreally a good name for me."
"Well," remarked the woman, as she bustled around the room and set thetable and brought food from the cupboard, "you were unlucky to live allalone in that dismal forest, which is much worse than the forest aroundhere; but perhaps your luck will change, now you are away from it. If,during your travels, you can manage to lose that 'Un' at the beginningof your name 'Unlucky,' you will then become Ojo the Lucky, which willbe a great improvement."
"How can I lose that 'Un,' Dame Margolotte?"
"I do not know how, but you must keep the matter in mind and perhaps thechance will come to you," she replied.
Ojo had never eaten such a fine meal in all his life. There was a savorystew, smoking hot, a dish of blue peas, a bowl of sweet milk of adelicate blue tint and a blue pudding with blue plums in it. When thevisitors had eaten heartily of this fare the woman said to them:
"Do you wish to see Dr. Pipt on business or for pleasure?"
Unc shook his head.
"We are traveling," replied Ojo, "and we stopped at your house just torest and refresh ourselves. I do not think Unc Nunkie cares very much tosee the famous Crooked Magician; but for my part I am curious to look atsuch a great man."
The woman seemed thoughtful.
"I remember that Unc Nunkie and my husband used to be friends, manyyears ago," she said, "so perhaps they will be glad to meet again. TheMagician is very busy, as I said, but if you will promise not to disturbhim you may come into his workshop and watch him prepare a wonderfulcharm."
"Thank you," replied the boy, much pleased. "I would like to do that."
She led the way to a great domed hall at the back of the house, whichwas the Magician's workshop. There was a row of windows extending nearlyaround the sides of the circular room, which rendered the place verylight, and there was a back door in addition to the one leading to thefront part of the house. Before the row of windows a broad seat wasbuilt and there were some chairs and benches in the room besides. At oneend stood a great fireplace, in which a blue log was blazing with a blueflame, and over the fire hung four kettles in a row, all bubbling andsteaming at a great rate. The Magician was stirring all four of thesekettles at the same time, two with his hands and two with his feet, tothe latter, wooden ladles being strapped, for this man was so verycrooked that his legs were as handy as his arms.
Unc Nunkie came forward to greet his old friend, but not being able toshake either his hands or his feet, which were all occupied in stirring,he patted the Magician's bald head and asked: "What?"
"Ah, it's the Silent One," remarked Dr. Pipt, without looking up, "andhe wants to know what I'm making. Well, when it is quite finished thiscompound will be the wonderful Powder of Life, which no one knows how tomake but myself. Whenever it is sprinkled on anything, that thing willat once come to life, no matter what it is. It takes me several years tomake this magic Powder, but at this moment I am pleased to say it isnearly done. You see, I am making it for my good wife Margolotte, whowants to use some of it for a purpose of her own. Sit down and makeyourself comfortable, Unc Nunkie, and after I've finished my task I willtalk to you."
"You must know," said Margolotte, when they were all seated together onthe broad window-seat, "that my husband foolishly gave away all thePowder of Life he first made to old Mombi the Witch, who used to live inthe Country of the Gillikins, to the north of here. Mombi gave to Dr.Pipt a Powder of Perpetual Youth in exchange for his Powder of Life, butshe cheated him wickedly, for the Powder of Youth was no good and couldwork no magic at all."
"Perhaps the Powder of Life couldn't either," said Ojo.
"Yes; it is perfection," she declared. "The first lot we tested on ourGlass Cat, which not only began to live but has lived ever since. She'ssomewhere around the house now."
"A Glass Cat!" exclaimed Ojo, astonished.
"Yes; she makes a very pleasant companion, but admires herself a littlemore than is considered modest, and she positively refuses to catchmice," explained Margolotte. "My husband made the cat some pink brains,but they proved to be too high-bred and particular for a cat, so shethinks it is undignified in her to catch mice. Also she has a prettyblood-red heart, but it is made of stone--a ruby, I think--and
so israther hard and unfeeling. I think the next Glass Cat the Magician makeswill have neither brains nor heart, for then it will not object tocatching mice and may prove of some use to us."
"What did old Mombi the Witch do with the Powder of Life your husbandgave her?" asked the boy.
"She brought Jack Pumpkinhead to life, for one thing," was the reply. "Isuppose you've heard of Jack Pumpkinhead. He is now living near theEmerald City and is a great favorite with the Princess Ozma, who rulesall the Land of Oz."
"No; I've never heard of him," remarked Ojo. "I'm afraid I don't knowmuch about the Land of Oz. You see, I've lived all my life with UncNunkie, the Silent One, and there was no one to tell me anything."
"That is one reason you are Ojo the Unlucky," said the woman, in asympathetic tone. "The more one knows, the luckier he is, for knowledgeis the greatest gift in life."
"But tell me, please, what you intend to do with this new lot of thePowder of Life, which Dr. Pipt is making. He said his wife wanted it forsome especial purpose."
"So I do," she answered. "I want it to bring my Patchwork Girl to life."
"Oh! A Patchwork Girl? What is that?" Ojo asked, for this seemed evenmore strange and unusual than a Glass Cat.
"I think I must show you my Patchwork Girl," said Margolotte, laughingat the boy's astonishment, "for she is rather difficult to explain. Butfirst I will tell you that for many years I have longed for a servant tohelp me with the housework and to cook the meals and wash the dishes. Noservant will come here because the place is so lonely andout-of-the-way, so my clever husband, the Crooked Magician, proposedthat I make a girl out of some sort of material and he would make herlive by sprinkling over her the Powder of Life. This seemed an excellentsuggestion and at once Dr. Pipt set to work to make a new batch of hismagic powder. He has been at it a long, long while, and so I have hadplenty of time to make the girl. Yet that task was not so easy as youmay suppose. At first I couldn't think what to make her of, but finallyin searching through a chest I came across an old patchwork quilt, whichmy grandmother once made when she was young."
"What is a patchwork quilt?" asked Ojo.
"A bed-quilt made of patches of different kinds and colors of cloth, allneatly sewed together. The patches are of all shapes and sizes, so apatchwork quilt is a very pretty and gorgeous thing to look at.Sometimes it is called a 'crazy-quilt,' because the patches and colorsare so mixed up. We never have used my grandmother's many-coloredpatchwork quilt, handsome as it is, for we Munchkins do not care for anycolor other than blue, so it has been packed away in the chest for abouta hundred years. When I found it, I said to myself that it would donicely for my servant girl, for when she was brought to life she wouldnot be proud nor haughty, as the Glass Cat is, for such a dreadfulmixture of colors would discourage her from trying to be as dignified asthe blue Munchkins are."
"Is blue the only respectable color, then?" inquired Ojo.
"Yes, for a Munchkin. All our country is blue, you know. But in otherparts of Oz the people favor different colors. At the Emerald City,where our Princess Ozma lives, green is the popular color. But allMunchkins prefer blue to anything else and when my housework girl isbrought to life she will find herself to be of so many unpopular colorsthat she'll never dare be rebellious or impudent, as servants aresometimes liable to be when they are made the same way their mistressesare."
Unc Nunkie nodded approval.
"Good i-dea," he said; and that was a long speech for Unc Nunkie becauseit was two words.
"So I cut up the quilt," continued Margolotte, "and made from it a verywell-shaped girl, which I stuffed with cotton-wadding. I will show youwhat a good job I did," and she went to a tall cupboard and threw openthe doors.
Then back she came, lugging in her arms the Patchwork Girl, which sheset upon the bench and propped up so that the figure would not tumbleover.
Ojo]
The Patchwork Girl of Oz Page 3
